


Hopelessly Charmed

by anna_e



Series: Maria Stark Jr. One Shots [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Dad!Tony, Father!Tony - Freeform, Parent Tony Stark, Pre-Iron Man 1, Stark!OC - Freeform, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, almost called her a baby and then was reminded that six is not technically a baby, but shes baby, child maria stark, pepper claims she doesnt like kids but maria is about to change that, tony is a good dad and i will stand on this hill until i rot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27947105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anna_e/pseuds/anna_e
Summary: Pepper doesn't like children. She doesn't even want children.Maria Stark makes her think otherwise.Pepper is hopelessly charmed.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & daughter
Series: Maria Stark Jr. One Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1286228
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	Hopelessly Charmed

**Author's Note:**

> me: okay it's time to work on the relationship series since you've had actual requests for those  
> also me: okay but, hear me out, more baby maria??  
> me, already opening google docs: goddammit

When Pepper Potts first met Maria Stark, the young girl was only six years old. Even at the first glance she got of her, Pepper is hopelessly charmed in a way she never thought she’d be around children. 

She’d only been working for Stark Industries for a few months by the time she first saw Maria. Up until that point she had yet to meet the famed Stark daughter. For all his extravagances when it came to himself and the media, Tony was extremely protective over the young girl and her privacy. Pepper couldn’t even recall a time where images of the girl were shown publicly or uncensored. Despite all that he constantly spoke about her, Tony made sure that his daughter was well guarded and protected from the media. 

The first time she saw Maria, she had momentarily forgotten that there was in fact a little girl living in the tower. She’d been more than a little startled when the small body ran past her in the hallway on her way to speak with SI’s marketing team. 

Starks bodyguard, Happy Hogan, running after the little girl at full speed was also a little bit startling. 

“Kid! Come on!”

Happy had only gotten a delighted giggle in response to his shouts after the girl. Pepper watched as the small body flew around a corner and disappeared down a hallway she personally didn’t even know existed. 

It had only struck her a few minutes later that Happy was most certainly doomed in catching up to and finding the girl. It was common knowledge amongst the tower that the Stark girl knew each floor better than even it’s builder, the building having been her main home since birth. There was no way in hell Happy would find her if she set her mind on hiding, which is exactly what she had done. 

The idea of such a little girl causing such a ruckus was more than a little amusing. Pepper couldn’t stop herself from feeling a little charmed by the child. 

It was only a few days after she had witnessed the fiasco that was a six year old outrunning and hiding from a very exhausted Happy that she met Maria for real. 

There had been a hiccup in one of their distribution days for a new tech release from the company. Nothing Pepper and Tony’s team couldn’t fix with time, but still a frustration that led to them staying cooped up in the office later into the night than usual. 

The office was silent save for her tapping away at her computer and Tony shuffling through the incident reports they’d been sent from the distributors. A slightly robotic voice breaking the silence was enough to startle Pepper out of where she’d been focused on reaming out the person responsible for the incident via email. 

“Sir, I apologize for the disruption, but it seems that Miss. Stark has had a nightmare.”

Tony frowned and nodded, standing up without a moment of hesitation and leaving the office, not speaking a word to Pepper as he left. That made her raise an eyebrow, it was rare that Tony Stark left a room without making his exit a grand event.

“Where’d he go Jarvis?”

“Sir is going to check on Miss. Stark, she often wants to see him after nightmares.” There was a pause before the AI spoke up again “sir would like to know if you’d mind if he brought Miss. Stark back up with him. She is quite restless.”

It had struck Pepper in that moment that despite all his dramatics, Stark really did seem to care deeply for the people in his life. He was always the first to ask for updates about injured or sick workers. Always kept an eye out for the safety of their security team despite their jobs. And now the man had dropped everything he was doing to check on his daughter after a nightmare. “Yes of course she can come up Jarvis.”

A few minutes passed before the door to the office swung open again and Tony came walking back in, a very sleepy little girl held in his arms. Pepper didn’t know why, but she’d been surprised to see that that the child's wide brown eyes were an exact copy of her fathers, her curly brown hair seeming just as unruly as Tony’s when it wasn’t tamed down for press or interviews. 

After sitting down in the chair he’d been seated in earlier, Tony gently spun around so Maria was looking at Pepper. A small smile crossing his face as he spoke quietly to his daughter. “Little miss, there's somebody I’d like you to meet.” He gently tucked one of her brown curls behind her ear “this is Miss. Pepper Potts, she’s a friend of mine.”

The girl had waved so shyly that Pepper momentarily forgot about the scene she’d witnessed just days earlier, Maria’s smile giving off an overwhelming air of innocence and sweetness. “Hello Miss. Pepper, it’s nice to meet you.” Her smile turned to something just a little more mischievous and it shocked Pepper just how alike Maria and Tony looked, just how much their expressions mirrored each other. “My daddy talks a lot about you.”

Jokingly and gently placing a hand over her mouth, Tony stage whispered “you traitor!” to her before slapping his free hand against his chest and flopping back against the back of the chair. “That was a secret between you and me.”

Her little smile took on an even more dangerous glint and even then, Pepper could tell that that girl was going to be an unstoppable force one day. 

Looking between her father and Pepper, she looked up at Tony innocently and spoke again. “You were right daddy, she is very pretty.”

The betrayed squawk that came from Tony would live in Peppers memory forever, but it wasn’t nearly as funny as the pleased little grin that graced Marias face when the two adults reacted to what she said. 

Maria Stark was going to be a force to be reckoned with and Pepper couldn’t wait to see it. 

~~~

Since their first meeting that night a few months ago, Tony was much more open about having Maria visit when Pepper was around. Now, when the two have meetings in their offices to discuss more child friendly topics, Maria could often be found spending time in the offices alongside them. 

Sometimes the little girl would be sat by the window playing with some dolls and toy cars her father must have gotten her -Pepper was beyond amused when she watched Maria tuck all her toys in for a nap, all of them including the miniature designer cars- and sometimes she could be spotted hidden under Tony’s desk with a coloring book and crayons in hand. 

Something that surprised Pepper was how patient Tony was with his daughter. The billionaire more than once would kneel down on the ground to be eye level with Maria while he explained different concepts to her. And one of Pepper’s personal favorite memories from their meetings was when he showed not an ounce of frustration when Maria interrupted their conversation to insist they all wear paper crowns for the duration of the meeting. She was hopelessly charmed during the entire affair. 

There were times when Tony would ask Marias opinion, taking her seriously even when her suggestions were fairly ridiculous. It was strange, seeing Tony speak with his seven year old daughter about proposed company policies and design changes to distribution centers. It was even stranger when the girl seems to flip a switch, speaking and coming up with ideas that were far beyond her years. There were moments where Pepper can forget that little Maria - despite her babyface and childish innocence- is a budding genius. 

~~~

She’s been at the company for nearly two years when Tony skips a meeting between the two of them. Of course it’s common for Tony to skip out on countless meetings that he probably should have attended, but he’d never before missed the ones that were just the two of them. 

Momentarily she’s frustrated at Tony for missing the meeting without warning, but then she’s concerned. Why did he miss out on one of their meetings that was just between the two of them? He’d never done that before.

It’s a trip up to the higher residential level that she realizes why Tony had ditched. 

“It’s okay sweetie, you’re gonna be okay.” His voice is soft as he murmurs to his daughter and Pepper realizes that she’s never heard Tony speak this softly before, never heard him sound this tender. She wonders why until she hears soft cries coming from where she’d heard Tony’s voice. “Let’s get you something to drink and then we can watch a movie okay? Any movie you want.”

When Tony steps out of the bathroom, a very pale looking Maria held tightly in his arms, Pepper forgets all frustration she had about him skipping their meeting. 

“Is she okay?” She finds herself asking, concern for the little girl building up in her chest. She’s never seen Maria like this before and all she wants in that moment is for the girl to light up like the lightbulb she truly is. 

Tony nods and walks past her, carefully setting Maria on the couch and bundling her up in a massive fuzzy blanket. “Stomach bug, she hasn’t been able to keep anything down since late last night.” When Pepper moves to take a step forward he shakes his head. “Might not want to get too close, I don’t know if shes contagious.” 

It’s then that Pepper notices the dark circles under Tony’s eyes. To be fair, the man nearly always looks exhausted, but now he just looks drained. “Have you slept?”

“Nah,” he shrugs and runs a hand through his already messy hair “needed to keep an eye on her for when she got sick, she doesn’t like being alone when she doesn’t feel good.”

She looks over to see Maria already dozing on the couch, a plate of saltine crackers on the table nearby and a glass of water just within arms reach. “I can watch her while you get some sleep.”

Tony shakes his head “no you don’t have to, it’s not a fun job Pep.”

“I know that. And I don’t have to, I want to. You need sleep and she needs somebody to watch her, I don’t care if it’s fun.” 

There's a split second where Tony looks like he’s about to cry, but it goes away just as quickly as it came. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” She pulls off her heels and slides off the blazer she’d been wearing as she walks over to the couch. “Get some sleep Tony.”

“Okay,” he glances back over at Maria and looks more unsure of himself than Pepper has ever seen him. “There's a bowl on the floor, she hasn’t had to use it but it’s just in case. And I’ve been giving her gatorade for electrolytes, it’s in the fridge. And try and get her to eat some crackers if you can?” He continues to ramble on frantically as he tugs at the sleeves of his shirt, clearly hesitant to leave his daughter. “And if she gets upset please wake me up, please,” he looks at her desperately and Pepper realizes that he probably doesn’t easily trust people to care for Maria often.

“I promise she’ll be okay Tony, I’ll make sure she eats and drinks and is feeling comfortable, I promise I’ll take care of her. But you need to go take care of yourself too.”

Tony pauses for just one more moment before nodding and walking off into what Pepper assumes is his bedroom. She hopes he’ll get at least an hour of sleep. 

Hesitantly, she moves to sit down beside Maria on the couch. The girl looks so tiny wrapped up in her massive blanket and curled into the corner of the couch, nothing but her little head full of curls poking out of the top of her makeshift cocoon. Once she’s settled into the couch, she feels Maria moving and looks over just in time to see the girl all but flop into Peppers side, curling up even tighter and burrowing herself under Peppers arm. 

She never thought she’d have children, and she honestly never thought she’d even really care about children, but looking down at the sleeping child, Pepper is hopelessly charmed. 

After watching Maria, she threw up for about two days straight, but Tony sent her a massive and very expensive gift basket for her troubles. The basket was nice, but the card from Maria really made it great. A crude little drawing of her and Maria together in the center of the paper being her favorite part, followed closely by the proclamation that Pepper is now her fifth favorite person, after her father, her two uncles, and Jarvis -even though he isn’t a person, Maria explicitly stated that Jarvis belongs in her list of favorite people-.

She never really liked children very much and never thought she’d have one. But much like her father, Maria Stark had wormed her way into Peppers heart and made herself a home there. 

**Author's Note:**

> i've reemerged from my cave of solitude!!
> 
> bro covid fucked me up for real yall i had so much i was supposed to do an then BAM i'm still living at home and working at a pharmacy (not that there is anything wrong with that it's just not personally what i wanted to be doing). so perhaps i'll get more time to actually work on this series instead of posting once every other blue moon. 
> 
> update on the relationship series though!! i am currently working on both a maria x thor story and a maria x bucky story so please keep your eyes peeled for those.
> 
> thank you so very much for reading and as always please send me your thoughts, comments fuel my drive to work on these and i love chatting with you guys <3


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